Well, at least trying to anyway.  I've had a rough few months and stopped keeping up with Covenspace not long after I started using it because I had a number of other commitments to deal with and a lot of personal drama going on.  Now I'm trying really hard to just get back to things that are (or were) part of that normal, day to day, for me.  

I was living in California and found that it was very not me.  My husband was a little resistant to want to come back to the East Coast but he finally gave in seeing how miserable I was and his job was very accommodating and they allow him to work off site which is great.  I have started a number of various projects including a Pagan blog (which I need to get cleaned up a bit and then I'll post links), got to work on finishing up my tarot book which should be done and out around January, started a Pagan networking site called The Pagan Teahouse and have gone back to reading tarot full time, more or less.  I have started work on a new website for me readings and magickal counseling work but have to get that finished up so the site will probably be running by mid-November.

I also made the decision to go back to take classes with Sacred Mists online.  It was something that I felt really strongly against at the time when I left but I came to realize it wasn't the online experience that was bothering me so much but it was the overwhelming feeling of people just sucking the life out of you on there.  There are so many people that come to Wicca and Paganism with some notion that it's a path that will heal all ills and that if they go and tell the world their problems and basically beg for help, prayers and energy then they will be all better.  After a while it just gets to you and I think that's why I basically snapped and ran away.  Granted, the lessons do seem to be a little basic at times and the fact that I'm on a lesson on visualization while in the middle of their second degree work is a little frustrating, at the same time, it's something that I am willing to work through since I do have a lot of respect for the actual process and what they are doing.  I've been part of that online family for 5, almost 6 years and it was weird to not be part of that anymore.  So far I've been taking it slow getting involved again but I know that if I don't pace myself I'll be right back where I was before, frustrated and exhausted.  

And with that I am back.  Back to Covenspace, back to doing the things that I love, and hoping that everything goes back to that peaceful feeling of "normal", for me at least, as the winter months roll in.  I'm excited to be back where there is snow and weather.  If I were still in California I'd be somewhere in LA right now staying with friends because I would have been evacuated due to the wildfires.  So it's good to be back east.  :) 

(passing this on from Myspace...I don't have anything to do with this, and sadly can't attend.)

Celebrate Our Historic Victory with the Veterans’ Pentacle Quest!

Advocate a Pagan Chaplain in the U.S. Armed Forces!
Keep the focus on the VA to recognize Thor’s Hammer of the Asatruar and the Druids’ Awen symbol!

Meet us in front of The White House for a Pagan Religious Rights Rally and Ritual!

Wednesday, July 4th, 2007
Lafayette Square Park
Outside the White House and the Department of Veterans Affairs
Washington, DC
Set-up between 10am and Noon
Speakers begin at Noon
Ritual begins at 2pm and transitions to
Spirit Drum Circle until 5pm
Breakdown begins at 4pm
Event ends at 5pm



Roster of Speakers:

· Rev. Barry Lynn
Americans United for Separation of Church and State

· Rev. Selena Fox
Lady Liberty League and Circle Sanctuary

· Diana L. Paxson
The Troth, Fellowship of the Spiral Path

· Rev. Michael Akins
Military Pagan Network

· Rev. Robert Lee (Skip) Ellison
Ar nDraiocht Fein

· Rev. Marcia Drewry
Sacred Well Congregation

· Stephen McNallen
Asatru Folk Assembly

· Caroline W. Casey
Visionary Activist Astrologer and Radio Host


Special Guest Diana L. Paxson, Pagan Elder and acclaimed author, will lead a ritual to invoke the Founders of Our Nation to work with us to protect the liberties they established and the land they loved.

Spirit Drum Circle after the ritual facilitated by Mz. imani, shaman of the drum and founder of Conscious Collaborations. Through the voices of the drums, our ritual intent will travel into the hearts of the world, invoking harmony, justice and religious freedom for all.

Join us to celebrate a major victory for Pagan Religious Rights, now that we have secured the Veterans’ Pentacle! Help us voice a further agenda for Pagan Religious Rights: We want a Pagan chaplain in the U.S. Armed Forces. And we need to keep the focus on the Department of Veterans Affairs to accept Thor’s Hammer, religious emblem of the Asatruar, and the Druids’ Awen symbol.

We waited for ten years for the Department of Veterans Affairs to add the Wiccan Pentacle, a five-pointed star within a circle, to the roster of symbols approved for use on veterans’ memorial markers, gravestones and plaques. During that ten years, several other religions’ emblems of belief were added to the approved list in a matter of weeks or months, while the requests to include the Pentacle continued to languish.

It took endless advocacy by diverse Pagan groups, considerable national and local media coverage in support of the Veterans’ Pentacle, and finally, litigation by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the American Civil Liberties Union, before our soldiers received the right to express their religious faith from the VA.

In the federal lawsuit that settled the quest for the Veterans’ Pentacle, Circle Sanctuary vs. Nicholson, attorneys for Americans United for Separation of Church and State found evidence that the VA stonewalled the Pentacle approval process for political reasons. Americans United attorneys worked with Department of Justice attorneys representing the VA to settle the case out of court, and add the Pentacle to the VA approved list of religious emblems without further delay.

A department of the federal government used its authority to suppress free expression of a minority religion for political reasons. This is in opposition to the ideals of religious freedom Americans hold dear.

While we have won the quest for the Veterans’ Pentacle, the Pentacle is a single victory in the longer campaign for universal religious freedom. We need to hold a clear intent: we want to further the free expression of all religions, Pagan and otherwise. And we need to send that message now, while America still remembers that a department of the federal government systematically denied Wiccan soldiers their full rights.

It is our task to educate the Department of Veterans Affairs so that they can understand that we have different denominations within the family of Pagan religions. Now that the Pentacle has been approved, we are working to establish Thor’s Hammer and the Druids’ Awen symbol as emblems of faith for use on veterans’ memorial stones and plaques. Thor’s Hammer is the symbol used by the Asatruar, the Germanic and Scandinavian Pagans. The Druids’ Awen is an important emblem of faith among Druids. Both symbols are currently before the Department of Veterans Affairs for approval.

And our Pagan soldiers, whatever their denomination, need a Pagan chaplain in the U.S. Armed Forces. We are simply asking for parity with other religions in the matter of a chaplain. There are many chaplains from other minority religions in the U.S. Armed Forces. It is time for the door to be opened to a Pagan chaplain.

So please join us on the Glorious Fourth of July in front of the White House, and add your voice to the chorus: We will not accept another ten years of stonewalling and denial. We want full Pagan religious rights. And we want our rights immediately.


This event is organized by Caroline Kenner and Chesapeake Pagan Community. We are establishing a website at www.paganreligiousrights.org which should be live by May 18th. A full announcement of this event will take place in The Witches' Voice in the May 20th edition.

I just wrote this REALLY long post pouring my heart out about something that really was bothering me and I accidently clicked on the STUPID banner at on top of the page and lost the whole post. So I'm going to try and do it again in a sort of Cliff's Notes version since I don't think I can say this so eloquently a second time...lol.

I've been involved with one of those online "Wiccan schools" for about 5 years. I made the decision this week, after 2 months of consideration, to leave the group. At first I had a hard time making the decision because I thought I'd be leaving behind a lot of friends and I didn't want to lose that (one of the reasons that I had been there for so long) but it seems that all those "friends" could care less that I have left and everyone's response when I emailed the ones I thought I was closest to privately to let them know just said "good luck" and that was it. I felt, in an odd way, like I'd been lied to for a long time by some people.

Basically, when I joined this group, I did it to make friends and add to what I was learning while undergoing traditional Priestess training in a Wiccan coven. I never really made many close friends (there is a pretty strictly enforced rule about sharing networking information, emails, websites, etc) but did THINK I had a few (though I learned this week that wasn't the case) and I never learned a terrible amount of information that I didn't either already know from reading the books that the the lessons seemed to be taken from or from just my own experience. When I joined the group I'd already been practicing for 14 years so at this point being 19 years on my path, I was craving a challenge. I tried and tried to find it there and found nothing. When I got to the latest lesson and realized that now halfway through this school's "second degree" program I was going to be doing a lesson on creative visualization I decided that I couldn't keep pretending that this was fun for me. I mean, creative visualization? "Second Degree"? Honestly now...that's a beginners technique that needs to be learned early on to do magick and ritual, no? I know when I first started out it was one of the first things I learned along with meditation.

I found myself just swimming in a lot of things that didn't fit. I felt like nobody wanted to talk about anything beyond their many problems (this just seemed to be a gathering place of people with failing marriages, major illnesses, mental problems, lack of support from anyone about their spiritual path, etc) or the great new trick their dog learned today. I hate using the "F" word, but it just seemed like things were either getting really fluffy there or my eyes were just opening up to it. I would try and bring up topics of discussion that were more involved or more related to things like magick, ritual, history, etc but they would get buried in the "send me energy because my life sucks" posts and the "my dog sees spirits" posts. Add to this the fact that I never felt the expected "surge of magickal energy" from their online rituals, didn't understand what the difference between eclectic Wicca and this groups "tradition" was (nor could anyone ever tell me when I'd ask) and the fact that I didn't see the school's "high priestess" as the Goddess incarnate, it really didn't make any sense for me to keep shelling out money every month to have Wicca 101 regurgitated to me 50 different ways and get awarded a series of "Wiccan degrees" (both in title and in a printable certificate, suitable for framing). That becomes another of my issues too, the whole "earn your High Priestess degree" online. It's not like a college degree, it's not necessarily recognized outside of the tradition and coven structure where it was given. I had one kid there that I talked to tell me how he was looking forward to getting his High Priest degree quickly because he wanted to start up his own coven and didn't think anyone would join if he wasn't a "degreed priest". *sigh* Nobody ever seemed to explain to anyone in that group how that whole thing works I guess.

It's funny because lately I've been wanting to really just read and research things like the history of where many of these practices come from. To which I mean learning more about things like high magick and the Golden Dawn to understand the magickal systems that make up the whole eclectic neo-Wiccan experience. It's nice to know how to cast a circle but it's a whole other to actually do it (and not pretend on a computer) and to understand how it works, why it works, etc. I've also been finding myself thinking back a lot to when I was practicing on my own as a solitary about 10 years ago and living on the beach in CT. I used to love to go into my little room I used with my small and very simple altar, light a candle and some incense and just sit and listen to the ocean. That to me always seemed to be the most powerful thing I would do. And still my favorite Samhain was the one I spent there when I did a private and simple ritual at the edge of the water.

Now, don't get me wrong. I DO believe that there is power in cybermagick. I DO believe that online training can help someone that is just getting started and beyond. What I don't agree with is that anyone worth their charged sea salt is going to be a great high elder Priest/ess after spending a handful of years doing online rituals and collecting their Word document "degree certificates" while faithfully handing over chunks of their hard earned cash each month for the "privilege" of being spoon-fed information that cames almost exclusively from books available at your local Borders and being "allowed" to communicate with other people of like mind.

In the end what I think it was was me feeling like I just needed to move on and challenge myself where I couldn't find a challenge there at all and I was getting tired of being surrounded by people that were happy living mediocre spiritual lives that never went anywhere. For as much as I found myself bored and often drifting off in their online rituals I would still attend (as is required) they were the same ritual ever sabbat, year after year. I always make sure to sit down and plan something out different each sabbat each year so as to keep moving and growing. But I guess when your audience changes so frequently there's no reason to redo anything since more than half the people in attendance weren't there last time.

Ah well. I guess when there are people out there willing to freely part with their cash for such things (hey, I was a sucker too for a long time) I guess it's ok and it's part of the learning process.

I'm sure everyone has at some point found themselves directed to the Landover Baptist Church website by someone saying that they have articles about killing Wiccans and Witch Hunting and whatnot. It always amazes me that there are people that actually haven't figured out that this is a spoof/parody site. But I had to post and direct some of you that may not have been here before to go to the site and check it out. I am a subscriber to the iTunes podcast that they do which are short little "sermons"...they are just great. One that I listened to today was laugh-out-loud funny (though I find many of them to be that). The one for St. Patrick's Day is just great. So go...check it out...it's fun. :)

Landover Baptist Sermons   -   http://www.landoverbaptist.org/60second/